shipwreck indonesia change our way

When we arrive in Indonesia a little tired of fighting for the poor service we decided to pay more for better things and no more, but we were wrong. Finally we took a tour from the island of Lombock to the island of Flores stopping on the way in Komodo to see the famous dragons. PERAMA, the company offering the tours was supposedly the most secure and reliable, at least their ads say so, but turned out to be the worst of all with inflated prices and no insurance, we finally feel cheated.

We left on March 26, 2011, 17 passengers, a family with a baby of 10 months and others. After a few stops on the island of Lombock, we headed to the first island to snorkel, and from there straight over night to another island for diving and some walking; eventually that was the last island before the accident. We sailed directly to other islands but because of the bad weather we could not get off and the captain had no better idea to continue to Komodo with the weather that did not look friendly at all. Mery comes over and told me that it seemed crazy that we keep going. That night a few of us could sleep well, the ship was moving in all directions indicating that thins were not going well. At 2 am a real nightmare began.

Suddenly felt a noise in the bottom of the boat and someone of the crew scream very laud, alerted everyone that everything was getting worse. Everyone started to get the lifejackets which were under the banks enclosed by nets that were difficult to remove and even had to be cut.

The hits in the bottom of the boat were very strong and constant scream following them, the engine appeared to explode and when I approach a window I saw one of the crew in the rescue boat, trying to straighten the boat witch was already leaning, it ended with the sinking lifeboat. I went back to where everyone was and I ve got the first lifejacket which was broken and after a search mery gave me healthy lifejaket which I use to jump to the water later.

The thing was already severe, the boat was steep and sank, the crew totally in panic and we, the passengers, we were ok except Betti, Hungarian, crying and screaming so with mery we tide her the lifeline.

After that we started, to think what to do with computers and I went to the captain’s cabin to get my bag that was there, but then we decided to leave everything except our passports and money, the risk that the weight of computers once we jump in the water were not let us swim or sank us so we decided to leave everything but our documents. Still so confusing for me that I do not know what I did first but I remember trying to start a video when the coordinator of the trip, told us that we had to jump, I looked everywhere and saw nothing when I started to ask someone to illuminate the sea because we did not know where we were, to where we had to swim, but luckily we were near the coast.

After a couple of people jumped I heard the baby, their already jumped to the water and , one second has passed and mery jumped I was trying to save the camera, but there was no skip longer. Little by little I remember those few seconds in the water we swam to get to the shore. We waited in the bank a few minutes and started to look for a place that was highest because tide was rising. Finally one of the guides came with the news that a rescue boat was right around the island but we had to walk up there, the night was very dark. We started to walk among the stones to reach the rescue boat, I thought the tide would come to where we were and it scared me, the stones were very slippery and we could not see anything, then we went to another larger boat where we would wait until Coast Guards came to picked us up 2 hours later. Once in the boat the baby’s family went to a cabin and we sat there drying up the money and passports that were a little wet. Yet we could not sleep, the adrenaline would not let us and talking about each of the stories of all of us. We waited a while, in about 2hr a new boat took us to Labuanbajo, which was where the tour would end. The journey took about 3 hours and the baby without milk or diapers yet that no one manages to bring. On the boat back the next day we planned to take another boat to see the dragons but as soon as we arrived and we went to eat the mood completely changed, once in the place of lunch each of us began to fall in reality, we had lost everything and many of us far from home, some with no passports or money or cards, I had only short witch I was wearing and nothing else.

When we ate or tried to eat most of us went into shock, everyone was falling on the seriousness of the situation and that the company was not going to be responsible for any of our losses, obviously because of the impunity, was little we could do more than yell and fight with the little strength we had left.

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This past month we’ve been through hard times and positive energy kept us traveling but there are signs that we can not ignore. We decided to come back and leave open the trip to continue later with more energy. France and Spain will not change much over the years as did Southeast Asia in just 6 years, our friends in Europe will be happy to meet us again in a few years with all the batteries recharged and not half speed.